The culture of artisanal crafts such as ceramics and quilting (among others) can get lost in the busyness of our mass produced and technological world today. The work reflected in “Missing Memories” strives to pay homage to those disciplines, bringing them alive in a new interpretation of “quilting” in clay.

My mother gave me a love for pattern, color, and fine craft, teaching me to needlepoint and quilt at an early age. These modes of creativity made sense to me because they utilized a pattern or a grid. In school I immediately responded to clay, finding comfort working in three dimensions.

Fabric and textiles have always had an influence on my work: the patterns and colors, the drape and folds of fabric on a form. Ignited by quilting projects forgotten in the attic 20 years after her death, I am guided by memories of my mother. I try to honor her love of craft by interpreting the memories and creativity we shared, even using many of her needlepoint and quilting supplies with my clay process.

Based on the Cathedral Window quilt pattern, which was a favorite of hers, the porcelain squares are textured and delicately folded to “quilt” the clay. Considering pattern and color, the individual squares are woven into panels with wire.

Memories can be fragile and elusive but durable representations can be treasured.

“The scene is memory and is therefore nonrealistic. Memory takes a lot of poetic license. It omits some details; others are exaggerated, according to the emotional value of the articles it touches, for memory is seated predominantly in the heart.”

― Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie